Don't Count Your Chickens

Or so the story goes... I've been looking for new office space for a little while now, mainly to help support growth of my company. For the past two weeks I have been dealing with Fred Droesch, of the Fred Droesch Company for some space that was available in his building. The space was perfect, almost exactly what I was looking for the only problem it turns out was the owner. After expressing my interest to Fred Droesch, filling out the credit application - and him calling and verifying the credit information he informed me that now one of his tenants was possibly interested in the space and that he had to give them a couple of days to decide. Well a couple of days ended up turning into a week when I was finally told that they had a deadline of Friday at noon to make up their mind. Friday noon came and went, and Fred called and told me the space was mine if I still wanted it. I told him that I wanted the space, he said it was a done deal and they would type out the lease and call me Monday morning to come over and sign it. Well - come Monday morning it turns out that the tenant changed their mind again and really does want the space and as a result Fred's "hands are tied". I understand the desire for him to lease the space to his existing tenant. And I also understand that a deal isn't done until the money's in the bank. But don't tell me we have a deal and then renig on it. This world used to run on a handshake - what happened to that?